Imagine my delight when I read this paragraph in the first email from the new editor assigned to give my book a final scrub:

“I am currently at work on the proofreading of Dead Air & Double Dares. While hunting for misplaced commas and odd spacing, I have been enjoying Crystal’s adventures. I need your help on something. I had my assistant Olivia read DA&DD before I set to work. I told her very little about the book so I could get a fresh read. Olivia found herself quite far into the novel before she realized that Crystal was in her sixties. She assumed our sleuth was ​in her thirties.”

Who hasn’t seen that amusing T-shirt with “Careful, or you’ll end up in my novel” stamped across its front? The playful warning sparks one of the questions I hear most as an author: “Where do you get ideas for your characters?”​I must admit that, for years, I was preparing for the day I could populate a novel with characters spun from the best parts of all the people I’d known. While they were passing through my life, unwittingly shedding bits and pieces of themselves, I was discreetly following with my broom and dustpan, sweeping their priceless fallout into my author’s bag of tricks.

It finally happened. My second novel, “Dead Air & Double Dares,” has spread its wings and flown the coop.

The publisher put lots of work into a nice cover, wrote a compelling blurb, and set me up with a 15-stop tour of blogs supported and frequented by the kinds of readers who would likely read a book titled, “Dead Air & Double Dares.”

Now that my book is out of my hands, its fate rests solely with its readers. Once their reviews begin to trickle in, I will finally know if my writing and plotting instincts were sharp enough, whether the advice of my writers’ group was correct, and if the advice I rejected was a mistake.

My reader friends who are familiar with my Indiana hometown (Tipton) say they love the subtle (sometimes not so subtle) references to the town’s locations that they recognize in my novels.

I make no secret that my fictional town of Elmwood is much like Tipton — a small, historic city in central Indiana with a rich repository of potential settings. For me, using some of them adds an element of authenticity to the backdrop of my story as my characters go about their business.​

I just read that Roger Smith, star of the late 1950s-early ’60s TV hit “77 Sunset Strip,” died Sunday. That got me thinking about a couple old memories.

Back then, without fail, my parents and I watched that show every week. We never missed it. We loved the show, and we loved the stars —Ephram Zimbalist Jr., Edward “Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb” Byrnes, and of course Roger Smith.

In those days, my mom and dad and I drove out to Southern California every other year (via Route 66!) to visit relatives, and on one of our trips during the “77 Sunset Strip” era, we cruised Sunset Boulevard looking for the address. We didn’t find 77, but we did find the familiar location instead at 7700. We didn’t see Ephram, Kookie, or Roger, but next door to 7700, we did see Dino’s, Dean Martin’s nightclub, which was often featured on the show. So, like typical, Midwestern, star-struck tourists, we were thrilled, snapping pictures and giggling.

I’ll never forget that tiny memory. Another one, not so tiny, that I’ll never forget was conducting my phone interview with Ann-Margret in the spring of 2003 for the Frankfort Times.

Just about a year ago, a phenomenal, Texas-based author named Caleb Pirtle III, who I've never met, asked to interview me for his blog. I had won honorable mentions for my books in contests he conducted for the East Texas Writers Guild, and the interview was a gift from him to help me publicize my books. I'm more than slightly embarrassed that he titled the interview "Inside the Literary Mind of Janis Thornton." I didn't know I had a literary mind, but if he says so, I won't argue. He's the judge after all.

Anyway, I am grateful to him for picking my book for two awards AND for conducting this interview. (The interview is also available on his website here: https://calebandlindapirtle.com/